Becky's Travel Blog: Louang Phabang, Laos

New month, new country. An a very nice one at that. We arrived a few days back and spent the first two days taking a slow boat down the Mekong River to get here. The scenery was amazing- tropical forests on mountainsides, topped with mist- Max found it very Indiana Jones! The journey was an interesting one. I had read about people that took it not b\many years back, when there were few tourists and the boats would be carry cargo up and down the river. Now although those boats still exist, many are put on purely for tourists, so it wasn't quite the romantic trip it might have been. The fact that it is still a vital form of transport was shown on our second day when we pulled up at a beach along the way and a very ill man was carried on board in a blanket-stretcher. He was laid down in the middle of the rows of seats, where a few minutes before a tourists with a hangover had been- he seemed to perk up pretty quickly!

Where we are now is also packed with tourists, but somehow it doesn' feel like it. It's very laid back, lots of pretty french colonial buildings, and both mornings the sun has shone and the sky has been blue. And when it rains we go and hide in a cafe or get a massage- a lifestyle I could definetly get used to. Especially as I'm suffering with lower back ache at the moment, so I'm aiming to get a massage every day til it clears up, at only two quid a time it's cheaper than taking painkillers!

Back to Thailand- as predicted the waterfalls were lovely, the only downside was the pools were full of little fish that eat the dead skin on your feet! People pay to have this done, but I really couldn't deal with it, and in trying to avoid them stubbed and possibly broke my little toe! It's feeling much better now though and hasn't really stopped me from doing much. The best bit of the trip was that we hired a motorbike to get there which was so much fun, something we hope to do alot more later on in our travels.

The following day we took a brief trip to the POW cemetry in the town and then went to the bridge to take photos, before getting a bus to Ayutthaya- ther former capital which got destroyed by the Burmese. Only spent one day there cycling around to various ruins and having a strange man take photos of us- very creepy. Left that night on the overnight train to Chiang Mai. Despite booking in advance there were no sleepers left so we had to get normal seats. They reclined and were pretty comfy so I decided to go to sleep at 10 and didin't wake til gone 7, less than 30 mins before we arrived, much to Max's annoyance as he hardly slept at all- I think he's starting to get used to it now though.

Internet is being temperamental, and we need food before the museum we want to go to opens for the afternoon, so the exciting trekking tales shall have to wait.